Slow Down
by FigTreeofyourImagination
Summary: Sonic pays a visit to his old "friend" on the Floating Island, hoping for a day of fun. Things go awry for the hedgehog when he discovers he's lost the ability to run.


_Well now! It's been a long time, over two years since I last posted here! I haven't forgotten you all, haha, I've just been very, very busy with all sorts of things - art, writing, school, and life in general. I've gotten quite a few messages since I was last here about when I was going to pick my other stories on hiatus back up, and hopefully that will be soon. I haven't touched any of my old writings since 2008 and because of that I'm out of the loop on my own stuff (how embarassing)._

_So, until I can update my older work (and fix them up as well), I have a new fic to hopefully entertain you all, based off of an old idea, where Sonic finds himself unable to run._

_Please enjoy, and see you soon!_

**Slow Down**

**Pt 1**

Sonic lived for speed. It was his natural talent, after all. Nothing thrilled him more than simply _running_, the feeling of the wind rushing past, leaving a brief vacuum of turbulence in its wake. The blue hog had no want to sit and wait, when things could happen _now_.

He'd been on Angel Island only so many times before now, getting to the floating hunk of earth was not so easy when you didn't have access to an aircraft. The tiny territory was still somewhat fresh to him, he always found something new and exciting each time he came by to visit. Plus it was always fun to try to verbally wrestle the Island's only sentient inhabitant, his "friend", into a game. The Emerald Altar came into view.

Sonic skidded to a halt at the temple's steps. "How long was that?" he questioned the utterly disinterested echidna sitting there, beaming.

Knuckles didn't get up. "Ten minutes and twenty-two seconds," he dead-panned.

The blue-blur's smile was gone in a heartbeat. "Wha? Over ten minutes! That's slower than yesterday's!" He scowled at the grass, hands on his hips.

The echidna clearly didn't care. "Big deal, there are worse things in the world."

"It is _so_ a big deal!" countered Sonic. "That was _slower than last time_."

"By what, a second?" he scoffed.

"I should have been faster, I know the terrain!"

"You make it sound like you were competing with someone," yawned Knuckles. "Last I checked, no one else was crazy enough to try to set a record for running a lap around Angel Island. People usually have _better_ things to do with their spare time."

Sonic passed him a glare. "What does that mean?"

Knuckles had had enough. "Maybe you're slowing down," he said dismissively.

The hedgehog gawped. Slowing down? "No way!" he protested. "I'll run again, and this time I'll be faster."

"Geeze, Sonic, would you give it a rest?"

"Here I go!"

The animal was off in a blink, leaving a blue trail behind him. Rolling his eyes for the umpteenth time, Knuckles started counting.

-oOOo-

"How fast was that?" Sonic was huffing, looking more than a little drained.

The Guardian was starting to regret getting up that morning. "Ten minute-thirty."

He sputtered like a backfiring engine. "Wh-That was worse than last time!" Angel Island was miles in diameter, the fact that he could run a lap around the chunk of rock at all was an impressive feat. But that wasn't _good enough_. "I'm going to go again."

Knuckles threw up his hands. "What for? You're not going to go any faster!"

"Yes I will."

"Don't be stupid, you'll be lucky to make it half-way." He stood up. "Look at you, you're huffing and puffing as if breathing was going out of style."

Sonic turned up his nose. "So?"

"Can you even _feel_ your legs right now? You just _ran_ all the way here, and now you're doing laps! Do you have _nothing else_ that you can possibly do to pass the time?"

The blue hog wasn't about to be told what-for by the world's greatest simpleton. His crossed his arms in forced composure. "I'm active, so what?" he said.

"You're not 'active', you're obsessed!"

"Says the guy who sits in front of a shiny _rock_ all day."

Knuckles glared at him. "At least I know when to call it a day, hedgehog."

Sonic smirked. "And that's how you miss out on living!" Having regained his breath, he made ready to give beating his personal record another go. "Eight minutes this time!" And he was gone.

"I'm not counting!"

* * *

**TBC! **_The dividing system for the documents hasn't changed__, I see. It's still__ rather frustrating to use._**  
**


End file.
